After more elbow tenderness in his side session, Mike Maroth is not starting Wednesday. Wilfredo Ledezma will start in his place. To fill the second lefty spot in the bullpen, the Tigers are calling up first-round pick Andrew Miller -- who was already expected here in September -- and optioning Colby Lewis to Toledo. Plus, Brent Clevlen is headed back to Erie for the final week of the Double-A season and Alexis Gomez is being called up for an extra left-handed bat. That's all.

CLEVELAND -- Andrew Miller's Major League debut is coming even sooner than expected. Mike Maroth's big-league return is going to have to wait.

The Tigers made a slew of decisions on their way out of Jacobs Field on Sunday, and not all of them were roster moves. Most of them revolved around Maroth, whose scheduled start Wednesday has been nixed due to continued tenderness in his surgically repaired left elbow.

Wilfredo Ledezma will start in Maroth's place Wednesday at Yankee Stadium. Maroth will still be recalled from the disabled list, but not until after rosters expand Sept. 1. That left the Tigers needing a second left-hander in the bullpen, so they called up Miller from his brief stint at Class A Lakeland.

In addition, the Tigers swapped reserve outfielders. They sent Brent Clevlen to Double-A Erie and will purchase the contract of Alexis Gomez from Triple-A Toledo on Tuesday to add a left-handed hitter.

The biggest news, and the catalyst for most of this action, was the continued uncertainty surrounding Maroth after surgery in June to remove bone chips from his left elbow. Though Maroth had said his elbow irritation was only minor and an expected part of strengthening his arm back into shape, manager Jim Leyland was waiting for Maroth to tell him he was ready to start.

After the feeling intensified during a side session Sunday morning, Maroth couldn't tell him in good faith he was good to go.

"They already kind of had a decision made up," Maroth said, "but I had the decision to make, too. It just didn't feel good in my bullpen. Yesterday [the elbow] didn't feel real good, but I was hoping that it would feel better in the bullpen. I couldn't go in and say that I was 100 percent. There's too much at stake for me to go out there and have a question mark."

The fact that it still didn't feel well after four rehab outings at Toledo was not a good sign. However, it wasn't nearly bad enough for the Tigers to shut him down. Once he rejoins the active roster, he'll pitch in a relief role.

"I'm right there," Maroth said. "I think that's what makes me the most disappointed and frustrated, that I'm so close. But it's just a matter of going through the process. They told me that after surgery, you're always going to hit bumps in the road. Everything went well up to these last couple starts. Hopefully I can get by them.

"I could be fine on Wednesday. But right now, at this point, I couldn't go in to [Leyland] and tell him I'm going to 100 percent."

Leyland, for his part, had planned for that possibilty, and considered Ledezma and Zach Miner, whose rotation spot Maroth was going to take, as backup options. Because the Yankees have so many quality left-handed hitters in their lineup -- Jason Giambi, Bobby Abreu, Robinson Cano and Johnny Damon among them -- Leyland opted for Ledezma, whose current 17-inning scoreless streak includes 5 2/3 innings in a spot start Aug. 6 against the Indians.

Leyland is calling this a spot start, too, rather than slotting Ledezma into the rotation. He said he'll work the spot each time out on a case-by-case basis according to the opponent and other factors. He's not considering Maroth as one of his options, at least for now.

"I am not planning on Mike Maroth in this rotation the rest of the year," Leyland said. "But it could happen."

As Sunday showed, plans can change. Though the Tigers had planned on bringing up Miller in accordance with his contract, they hadn't planned on doing it until rosters expanded in September. With the Tigers short a lefty reliever, however, he's getting his taste of the big leagues early, and it won't be a token appearance.

"Miller's the guy I wanted," Leyland said. "I don't want anyone taking the attitude that he's the No. 1 pick and he was coming up in September. We're calling him up before September because we think he's the guy. He's not coming up here on a pass."

The Tigers believed in the talent since before June's First-Year Player Draft. They selected the University of North Carolina star with the sixth overall pick knowing he would command a lucrative Major League contract, but believing he could help this season. He arrived in Lakeland earlier this month after signing his deal Aug. 4.

He made his professional debut just eight days ago, but he pitched like somebody who was too much for that level. His two scoreless innings with three strikeouts Saturday night against Fort Myers brought the total for his stint to five scoreless innings on two hits with a walk and nine strikeouts.

"I talked to numerous people in the organization," president/general manager Dave Dombrowski said, "and everybody has said that Miller has thrown the ball in an outstanding fashion. They think he can help us right now, and he's in a position where they think he can handle it from a mental perspective. And so we just thought it would be a move that would make sense for us to get another left-hander in the bullpen."

The move, Dombrowski said, had nothing to do with making Miller eligible for the postseason roster. Though players normally must be on the 25-man roster by Aug. 31 to qualify, exceptions are given to teams who have players on the disabled list. Miller hasn't been on the DL, but the Tigers can use him to theoretically take the place of someone who is.

That's a long way off, though. For now, his concern will be pitching in Yankee Stadium.

"I'm going to use him," Leyland said. "I can promise you that. You'll definitely see him in the Yankees series."

Unfortunately, they definitely won't see Maroth there.

"I've done everything I can to be ready," Maroth said. "But it's not on my timing. It's on God's timing. I'll be back when the arm's ready. And when I come back, I want to make sure I'm back."

I expect Miller to be the second LOOGY in the pen, similar to what Bobby Seay was earlier in the season, but hopefully a lot less sucky. Colby Lewis isn't really anything special anyways, so I won't particularly miss him, but he'll provide nice depth in September.

Clevlen? Well, I guess they are committing to Granderson for the next week or so. Gomez has surprisingly enough been tearing up AAA in August. He has something like 20+ extra base hits this month. Probably won't see him much if at all in the Yankees series, so I don't think the Clevlen-Gomez exchange will be too huge of a deal and Clevlen will probably be back up ASAP.

What ever happened to not wanting to rush a kid. I know they had to include a Sept call up to get Miller signed, but calling him up early means they play to use him in the play-offs should we get there and he not suck. Smart move on one level, but how much pressure can Miller handle at this stage?

Eff Gomez. A useless move. Clevlen did nothing to embarass himself while he was here, and we already know what Gomez can do and it's only a couple days so why? Is he planning on sitting Maggs? Clevlan had that covered anyway. Another Nefi-like move, if you ask me.

moochman wrote:Eff Gomez. A useless move. Clevlen did nothing to embarass himself while he was here, and we already know what Gomez can do and it's only a couple days so why? Is he planning on sitting Maggs? Clevlan had that covered anyway. Another Nefi-like move, if you ask me.

Probably quite the opposite. He's probably planning on playing Maggs, Granderson, and Monroe til whenever with Gomez unlikely to see the field aside from maybe defensive purposes or as a baserunner. In the meantime, Clevlen will get some ABs instead of sitting the bench. If one of these guys is going to sit the bench and not do much, I'd rather it be Gomez than Clevlen so Clevlen can get regular PT elsewhere.

My thoughts would probably be different if Clevlen was going to factor more in the upcoming series, but it looks like Leyland is going to show some major confidence in Granderson going forward. I like Clevlen, but he is still probably more a part of the future than the present.

moochman wrote:Eff Gomez. A useless move. Clevlen did nothing to embarass himself while he was here, and we already know what Gomez can do and it's only a couple days so why? Is he planning on sitting Maggs? Clevlan had that covered anyway. Another Nefi-like move, if you ask me.

Probably quite the opposite. He's probably planning on playing Maggs, Granderson, and Monroe til whenever with Gomez unlikely to see the field aside from maybe defensive purposes or as a baserunner. In the meantime, Clevlen will get some ABs instead of sitting the bench. If one of these guys is going to sit the bench and not do much, I'd rather it be Gomez than Clevlen so Clevlen can get regular PT elsewhere.

My thoughts would probably be different if Clevlen was going to factor more in the upcoming series, but it looks like Leyland is going to show some major confidence in Granderson going forward. I like Clevlen, but he is still probably more a part of the future than the present.

I am of a different mind set. Will Gomez ever be more than a AAA player? No. Cleven could end up being a regular OFer for the future, but is that going to be next year? Not likely. So I would rather that he experience a major league pennant chase and spend next year in Erie or Toledo getting his ABs.

moochman wrote:Eff Gomez. A useless move. Clevlen did nothing to embarass himself while he was here, and we already know what Gomez can do and it's only a couple days so why? Is he planning on sitting Maggs? Clevlan had that covered anyway. Another Nefi-like move, if you ask me.

Probably quite the opposite. He's probably planning on playing Maggs, Granderson, and Monroe til whenever with Gomez unlikely to see the field aside from maybe defensive purposes or as a baserunner. In the meantime, Clevlen will get some ABs instead of sitting the bench. If one of these guys is going to sit the bench and not do much, I'd rather it be Gomez than Clevlen so Clevlen can get regular PT elsewhere.

My thoughts would probably be different if Clevlen was going to factor more in the upcoming series, but it looks like Leyland is going to show some major confidence in Granderson going forward. I like Clevlen, but he is still probably more a part of the future than the present.

I am of a different mind set. Will Gomez ever be more than a AAA player? No. Cleven could end up being a regular OFer for the future, but is that going to be next year? Not likely. So I would rather that he experience a major league pennant chase and spend next year in Erie or Toledo getting his ABs.

But he WILL still experience a major league pennant chase, because he will be back and probably very soon.

All in all, I just don't see Clevlen being sent down as a very significant move, if the team is going to go with Granderson for the upcoming future through thick and thin. And I think this move points to that being the case. Is Gomez going to start in place of Granderson? No. Is he going to start in place of Ordonez? No (Thames might get that spot if Ordonez is rested). He'll be a defensive replacement and pinch runner. Now Granderson has to step up to validate this move, because the platoon with Clevlen was looking good to me...

Rod and Mario were just talking about the Tigers sending Clevlen down during the NYY/DET day game. They said that Leyland said he did it to take pressure off of Granderson. I guess Leyland backed it up by saying that Granderson is his guy in CF and he felt that Granderson was pushing too hard because he was always looking over his shoulder with Clevlen on the bench taking away some of his starts in CF against lefties. Doesn't make much sense considering Clevlen will be back in a of couple days but it's hard to doubt the skipper any more.

Honestly, I don't think any of us fans can come up with a perfect explanation on the Clevlen move. Granderson still can't consistently hit LHP, so Clevlen would be great to keep around. I look forward to his return to the big league club. If Granderson doesn't step up, I expect to see the platoon reimplemented if not see Clevlen get even more of a look in Granderson's place. Since it's only a matter of days, I'm not too worried, at least not about this particular situation because I do have greater worries about other aspects of the team.